Preseason AP Poll Out

The Associated Press debuted its preseason poll for the 2009 season today. Now, I cannot understand how you can rank outside maybe the Top Five before any team has even played a game, but at least it gives us something to talk about.

Its not a surprise to me that Florida was pegged as the No. 1 team, but it may serve as a shock that they were voted there by the largest margin in history. Praise be to Tebow. The entire 25 shapes out like this:

Rank

Team

Points

Previous

1.

Florida (58)

1498

1

2.

Texas (2)

1424

4

3.

Oklahoma

1370

5

4.

USC

1313

3

5.

Alabama

1156

6

6.

Ohio State

1113

9

7.

Virginia Tech

1054

15

8.

Mississippi

1047

14

9.

Oklahoma State

989

16

10.

Penn State

989

8

11.

LSU

914

NR

12.

California

746

NR

13.

Georgia

714

13

14.

Boise State

659

11

15.

Georgia Tech

593

22

16.

Oregon

587

10

17.

TCU

521

7

18.

Florida State

307

21

19.

Utah

289

2

20.

BYU

267

25

21.

North Carolina

261

NR

22.

Iowa

229

20

23.

Notre Dame

225

NR

24.

Nebraska

207

NR

25.

Kansas

134

NR

*Penn State and Oklahoma State are actually tied for ninth, but for listing purposes I’ve put them in alphabetical order.

Color me intrigued: Both at the fact that Ole Miss was ranked as high as eigth, and that Notre Dame was even ranked at all. I’m sorry, but a team that lost at home to Syracuse a few short months ago should not have any business cracking the Top 25. Besides, Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa are the only Big Ten teams making an appearance in the rankings. Hopefully this will change by the end of the year and we can see as many as four or five teams dispersed throughout the rankings.